The present disclosure is related to a pet environment, and more specifically, to a pet environment for animals such as guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, mice, and other small animals.
Small animals kept as pets, including guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, and mice, are commonly housed in cages. Cages traditionally are rectangular structures with a floor, walls, and often a closed top. Cages have been produced from metal and plastic, as well as other materials. The traditional cages are typically small with limited usable space or living area for the animals. Also, traditional cages have limited ability to expand the usable space if more animals are desired. The use of walls and a closed structure has substantially isolated small animal pets from their surroundings reducing interaction between the pets and their human caretakers.
Small animals, such as guinea pigs for example, are generally social animals and benefit from interaction with each other and with their human caregivers. Traditional pet cages being closed and confining discourage such interaction between the animals and people because additional effort is required to open the cage and remove the animal. Further, many pet cages are not designed to be aesthetically pleasing and thus are not easily incorporated into the living areas of a home. As such, pets are frequently relegated to seldom used rooms with reduced opportunities for interaction.
Traditional pet cages have also generally required the use of bedding material. Bedding materials such as wood chips, straw, litter, or other similar materials have served several purposes. For example, some animals, such as guinea pigs, have small delicate feet that are not well suited for standing or walking on a wire mesh floor. For cages having a wire mesh floor, some form of bedding has been required to create a protective layer to guard against injury to the animal.
Bedding has also been required to absorb pet waste, including urine and feces. In a typical pet cage, the pet's living area is also the area in which pet waste accumulates. Bedding has been used to absorb some of the waste generated by the animals. Typically, pet waste is permitted to accumulate for a period of time until the bedding material and pet waste are removed from the cage. New bedding material is then added to the cage and the cycle repeated. The replacement bedding material has been a recurring cost adding to the total cost of caring for small pets.
Particularly for cages of the wire mesh design, pet owners have also had to clean bedding material kicked or spilled from the cage. Pets moving about within the cage often kick bedding material causing the bedding material to leave the cage. Bedding material may also be spilled during the removal of soiled bedding material and the replacement of clean bedding material. This spilling of bedding material adds to the demands upon small pet owners. Further, special care must be taken in the selection of bedding material as some types of bedding material may contain chemicals harmful to pet or humans. For example, many animals are highly sensitive to scents and therefore even mildly scented bedding may be uncomfortable or even harmful to the animals.
Prior cage designs have typically combined the pet's living area and the area in which pet waste is deposited and collected. As a result, many small animals effectively live in a litter box, eating, drinking, and playing in the same environment in which waste accumulates between cleanings. The collocation of the pets with the pet waste has lead to unhealthy conditions for some animals. Further, the greater the number of animals in a single cage, the faster waste accumulates increasing the cleaning required and the potential for unhealthy conditions to develop.
There continues to be a need for a pet housing environment that promotes interaction between the pet and human caregivers and reduces the costs of caring for the animals. Also desired is a pet housing environment that provides a more hygienic living environment for the pet.